Looking for 'wind up toy' effects for card revelations . I already own a Koorwinder Car and Klaus the mouse .
I will scour the dealers hall at Blackpool this year
Do you know the names of any effects that use wind up toys ?
Thanks Russ

Don Alan's RANCH Bird is worthy of a look...

Agreed. It's a beauty if you can find one. An odder object then the car. https://www.martinsmagic.com/allmagic/cl......s%20hand.

Here is my own invention. A wind up Magician in a Box that finds a elected playing card:

https://youtu.be/B6Vmh4A_3PQ?si=uhuhekaBCSGpU-wS


Chuck Caputo

This is a picture of the second generation of the Ireland Ranch Bird. The original from Ireland's is not roosterlike, but more akin to "just a plain ol' bird".

Look it up in the Don Alan book by Jon Racherbaumer - 'In a class by himself' - the whole point is it's a most disreputable looking thing, faded, dirty, with yucky sparse feathers and bald patches, not cute in the slightest.
In a 2004 post on the Café Paul Chosse said, "Don Alan's original "Ranch Bird" was a VERY rare french automaton. Hand-made, with real feathers attached, and hand-painted."

Bobgil> I believe the OP was inquiring about the "NAMES of any effects that use wind-up toys". Ranch Bird is one such name. To my knowledge, Irelands (Chicago) was the enterprise that had a relationship with Don to sell HIS VERSION of The Pecking Bird and his other tricks/routines. I don't know if Don ever sold the Ugly Bird...? Ireland's bird is what appears to be a metal German made children's toy. PLUS many of our handlings evolve over time for various reasons. The metal birds were probably much more available.


In the book you referenced (The Legacy of Don Alan) is his original ROUTINE and handling. Irelands sold the required props including a suitable wind-up toy.
Don Alan made no claims as to his inventing the initial trick. His routine is his contribution.
BTW it was a great value for just $3 .

A few senior sorcerers may remember a similar set involving a wind-up Robot. I don't recall what it was called.

There is really only one effect with the wind up toy: A card is selected, lost in the deck, and spread on the table. The toy is wound up and moves down the spread to the selected card. That's it.

There's a nice description of Eugene Burger's take on it in Final Secrets. The toy is a small robot, and is still sold on eBay.

Rhett Bryson published a cool trick in Magic Magazine - Volume 10, Number 4 - December 2000. It used a battery operated toy called Cragstan the Crapshooter. I think there is also a windup monkey toy called Cragston the Crapshooter that can probably do the same trick. The effect was that the crapshooter toy would roll dice. You would count down the number of cards based on the dice roll. The countdown reveals a chosen/predicted card,

https://www.lybrary.com/magic-magazine-2000-p-888984.html